It's been a year now since Waaack and myself came up with a plan to build a new server, The question was what to build...The answer R2D2. The Idea came to us at lunch last August the research started shortly after that, In September the Build started.

The Goals:
Build a R2D2 clone, Close to screen accurate.
Make it R/C Controlled
Sounds and Wireless connectivity are a must.

This Work log will show what we've done and follow the continuation to completion.

As a side note, I didn't know about TGS R2PC till I meet CrimsonSky and Scarab this year at MML4. Both these mods are different and super sweet. This is not a contest or am I competing with RTS, we just share Similar interests. Hope you like it...For the first few weeks there will be allot of up dates...As it covers the first year of building, once we catch up updates will come as they happen..., I'm trying to finish as fast as I can, but the Real world keeps getting in the way of my Hobby, so be patients please.

Here we have the Frame Layed out (the outside has been Routed to shape with a homemade circle jig for the router) The Iside will be trimed away with a Saber saw.

I filled the low spots from forming with Auto body Glaze (it's like bondo, just for smaller "pin holes", it's down side is that is shrinks way more than bondo!) Then sanded it down. This was done till you couldn't see any of the seams or dents.

Next The Primer, Wet sand and remove any high spots (also filled in some more low spots), then 3 coats of prime (wet sand with 600/1000).

R2's Blue color is tricky, as it's a base of purple mixed with gold fleck and a blue candy top. I don't have the expertise in air painting, so I found a rattle can process that works (this was also based on Mr. Kridders work, with a redneck twist!).

Here is the base (as you can see it's a Metallic fleck deep Purple). 3 Coats of base then wet sanded with 1000 (I didn't want that orange peel look!)

The top is a blue anodized spray. (3 coats wet sanded with 1000)
Then I laid 4 coats of clear (3 wet sanded with 1000, then 1 light to clear up the fog!)

I've not polished or buffed it in these pics.

The frame took about 3-4 hours to make, the Alum vertical round bars took about 3-4 hours to cut then drill and tap a 1/4" hole in each end.

The Skin of the R2-SRV is 0.04" white Styrene (plastic). I got 2 4x8' sheets of this (The body is 18" around and 24"ish tall, plus the legs). If you looking for this stop in and see your friendly neighborhood sign maker, they can get it for you (it was $20us a sheet) Mine was there the day after I ordered it.

I had cad drawings of R2's body panels that I got printed out on E sized paper. That was lightly spray glued to the plastic. There are 4 sections of skins, the front inner, the front outer, the back inner, the back outer. This was done to give it that raised panel look when I finished cutting out the panels.
To get a feel for how it would look I taped the Rear outer layer onto the frame, Slipped the resin Power coupler in place and set the Aluminum Dome on top of the frame.

This is a look into the frame with the Rear skin on, no Dome, no front skins.

Now I can start cutting out all the panels....This is going to take awhile!
Here's what I'm working on now.

The Drive Train.....
I'm taking the Scooter motor / rear drive wheel assembly and adjusting it to fit into the feet boxes. I'll also be using the Batteries to power the motors.

Here is the donor a $49 Scooter form Big Lots

I've got it disassembled here....not much to it as you can see.

This Scooter will not engage the drive wheel till it's rolling 3mph...That will not do in R2 so I'm going to get rid of the controller here.

With the controller gone the 24V charging circuit is very simple.

I'll be posting more tonight or in the morning, I'm still unpacking R2 from the Midwest R2-builders mini con In Chicago (Bolingbrook) IL this weekend.

Let me know what you think!

Crazybillybob

Last edited by Crazybillybob on Thu Oct 26, 2006 9:22 am, edited 5 times in total.

Here is the outer foot shell and the scooter motor frame (striped down and Moded). When I make the Center foot shell I'll take more pics. The outers were made spur of the moment, and I didn't have a camera with me.

The foot shells are made from old computer cases, not the cheap ones these things are 1/32" ish thick. I laid out the pattern on the case and added tabs (to be folded in so I had something to spot wield too.) Then they were cutout a sheet metal cutter (I'll get a pic off this next time too) and a air power nibbler made short work of the cutting. Then a vise , sheet metal Piers and some spare steel blocks and the bending was done. All in all it took about 5.5-6.75 hrs to make two of these (first one took 75% of that time).

The frame here is still a work in progress. The support brackets on the top of it need adjusted to fit the foot, I still need to cut a slot in the top of the foot shells and put some u channel in there so I can attach the ankle to the foot. Once the channel is in the brackets will be adjusted and welded in place.

This is how the motor Mount will sit in the foot shell.

And a look at it from the inside (the part of the foot closest to R2's body)

Here's a little look into what I'm working on this weekend.

This is a picture of R2D2 built by ILM for one of the Starwars movies.

It is a 4x27 matrix of 3mm LEDs. I'm working on creating a printed curcuit board with 108 Ultra bright LEDs on it then randomizing the blinking pattern with a Microcontroller. I've been working on it in cad for a while...I'll get some screen shoots of the drawings up.

The work on the Rear Logic Display went well this weekend.
Here is the Cad Drawings I made to Get all the parts to fit in this little space.

First up was the Creation on the Bezel. This piece is used to Line up all the 3mm Leds so they look neat and are easier to see.
I've tried to make this out of styrene previously and the drill bit ripped the lattice out (but only after I drilled 80-90 holes ...there's 108 total)
So this time I'm using a 2.5mm thick Aluminum plate...The Lattice shouldn't tear as easily.

I printed the Bezel layout 1:1 then coated the back in a thin layer of spray adhesive ( this keeps the print from moving on you when your marking the centers to drill). Once the layout was in place I used a scratch all the mark dead center for each hole, next I center punched each hole. Here's what it looked like when that was finished.

If you look at the bottom of the plate you can see my first set of mistakes. I used a 1/8" drill bit to bore the holes, and it ended up cutting through the lattice. To fix the problem I got a smaller drill bit but will have to file out each hole a bit to let the 3mm LEDs fit in them....Snuggly! (if you look a the center of the mistake area you'll see these test holes...Works great! After allot of hole drilling, and some shaping the bezel looks great.

I also worked on etching the circuit board that the LED's will be hooked to.
As with the bezel I printed the layout out 1:1 on a Laser printer. Then cut it to fit the board. I also added alignment marks (not shown in the Drawing here) so both sides of the PCB (printed Cuircut Board) line up. I drilled 0.004" holes in the center of these marks and put pins in them. Then I Laid the Layouts printed side to copper on the board and heated with my iron for abit (20-30mins total) watching all the time not to burn the paper. Once that was complete I soaked the paper off in water. This is what it looked like after the water bath. (sorry just realized that I have no pics of that Process prior to this...I'll get them up the next time ..as I have many more PCBs to make for R2)

Now the board gets soaked in ferric chloride till all the unwanted copper is gone. Rinse the board with water and your ready to drill.

Here is the PCB and the Aluminum Bezel side by side.

Here a couple of pics showing the way these parts will be used together.
The first is the Rear Logic surround (made from Resin) with the Aluminum bezel underneath. The Second shows the PCB with the Bezel over it underneath the RLS.

1:

2:

Now I have to finish Drilling the 200+ 0.004 holes in the circuit board (got some drilled but broke my bit and it was late so I went to bed) and Solder in 108 Leds (thatâ€™s 216 Solder joins just for the LEDS!) I'll post those pics in a few weeks. Ha it takes time to do all that work, plus I've got some other parts that I need to get done quick before I do all the tedious stuff.

I Tought it would be cool to snap a pic of my pile of parts. (Note the front skins are just taped in place.)

The 3mm LEDs I ordered have this little lip on the bottom that makes them 3.4mm so the lips on each LED overlap.

Well here is the answer to the question how to get rid of the lip.

After a few quick clips the lips gone.

Now the LEDs fit snuggly with no overlap.

Here's a preview of what the front will look like with the LEDs in place.

Now I've gotta get them soldered into the PCB.

I got cracking Sunday on Drilling all 340 holes out of the PCB...Wasn't to bad just turned on the drill press and got in the "ZONE". an Hour or so later it was done.

I also finished the Utility Arm Carrier (the utility arms are the 2 Blue arms on the Front of R2 just below the dome). This carrier is important because it gives me somewhere to mount the Util. Arms that I'm making (really thinking about making them servo controlled so they can move in and out), and It pushes the front skin out in the correct shape. Right now with out the carrier the front of R2 has a big dent (flat spot) in it when I pull the front skins tight.

I draw out the shapes that I need on a large sheet of 1/4 PVC plastic.

Next I cut out each shape with a band saw.

Then we move over to the Vise for some clean up with the dremal, a File and the power sander.

I'm gluing the pieces together with Gorilla Glue and some small metal pins (aka Brads, with the hole they go into oversized). It's an odd shape (curved) so I'm just using masking tape to hold it in place till the glue dries.

Once the Glue dries I pull the tape off and it's perfect!

With the carrier glued up and Dry, I just had to sit my Prototype Utility arm in place (and the cutout from the skins so you can see what it's going to look like).

Now I just have to mount this to the frame, and get my front skins glued on.

I know it doesn't look like much but It's the lynch pin I haven't had time to make for the last 3 months....Now that I've got it made the main body is almost ready for paint. The next hurdle is the rear Access panel...So I can get to the Batteries and the PC Parts.

I've been thinking allot about the Mother board that I'm going to put into this mod. I've been planning that the server side of it would only work when R2 is plugged to a umbilical cord (which would have a 1Gb Net connection and 120VAC to power the PC). Then the Other day a friend of mine sent me an e-mail the this Review of the Voom PC I found more info on the VOOM PC and a Price at Mini-Box

With it I could run the game server while R2 is running around the room, Powering the PC on a 12V Battery. I've always planed on having a high-speed Wireless connection to Him, So the umbilical cord would not be needed. What do you think? The specs on it show that I should run fine as a BF2 Server (as far as I know that is the game with the highest req's for the Server platform!)

Does anyone know someone that wants to sponsor a Mod? I'd be happy to put the Company's logo and/name on a plaque to be mounted on the inside of the Access panel for R2-SRV... Drop me a E-Mail if interested.

I've been working late every night this week (and not on this mod ) So Today (Sunday) I took some time to start the Access door On the Back of R2. This is only way that I'll be able to get in to the body of R2. The Access door is large about 3/4 of the back. The Styrene that R2 is skinned with is very Flexible, which is great to make curves (like the body of R2) but it also means that with out a frame to hold it into shape it will distort.
With that in mind making a door in the back of R2 means I need some kind of frame to keep everything in shape. The answer Fiberglass...My first attempt at laying down glass.

The first thing is to make a form for the door. Lucky I already had a Body mockup that I had made for gluing up the skins (I never used but still had it laying around). I skinned a section with some 1/4 plywood (I made it more flexible by cutting slits 1/2 the way through the plywood the length of the plywood. The Slits were about 1" apart...I forgot to take a picture before I taped it up).
Then the frame is covered with duct tape (you can also use clear packing tape) this keeps the Resin from sticking to the frame. Here's the Frame cover in the tape.

Next I mixed up the Resin & hardener per the directions and painted a coat stright onto the tape. Then the first layer of fiberglass cloth down, using the paint brush to smooth out the cloth and make sure it's good and covered. The 2nd and final layer of fiberglass cloth goes on. On this layer I use a squeegee to smooth the glass and make sure the excess resin is removed (ends up on the floor), Don't add resin on this layer.
Here's a picture after It's all laid up.

Now We wait for 24Hrs to see how it turns out...Hey I'm waiting on this on too!

Well, Just to help the wait and to prove that Everyone loves R2....Here's Peanut (one of our cats) enjoying some quite time with R2.

The Last few posts were The a bunch of Weeks all rolled up and Highlighted.

From here on It should be Real Time (or as close as mod logs get!)

Thanks For Droping By Please leave feed back. If you can see a better way to do something let me know, I've been modding for 4 years and This project has tought me loads, So any help you can pass on would be great!

My Fiber glassing Didn't go as planed. Currently I have a Very sticky, very flimsily mess in my garage....My first guess I ran out of hardener and was not sure I had put enough in...Guess that thought was Right after all.

Here's the new plan:
buy more hardener
use 1 layer of fiberglass cloth a layer of fiberglass mat (1.5oz short fiber) then cover with another layer of glass cloth. I'm planning on laying this mess up on Friday night (so I'll have time to work on it ...if it dries : Or I'll have time to come up with a new plan that doesn't include fiberglass...maybe some Sheet Aluminum or PVC heated and Bent to shape)

Here is the Not quite Bent enough Piece of Cintra that lead to the Fiberglass Laying.

Here is my first (Failed!) attempt at laying Fiber glass...The Resin never Dried!

So first thing tonight when I got home was to lay up a new Door.
This time I laid 1 layer of Fiberglass cloth then 1 layer of fiberglass mat then covered with a layer of fiberglass cloth. (the mat is on the left, the cloth is on the right)

Here it is all laid up!

After the door is laid up, I started cleaning up so of the resin detail pieces so I can paint them tomorrow.

The resin seems to be drying correctly this time So tomorrow and Sunday could be busy days fitting the door and painting resin ....doing all those things on that Honey do list!!!

Success!!! This Try Came out great!
Here's the Access door Roughly trimmed down. The Curve and fit look great.

I want to take a minute here to talk about safety...If your working with Bondo or fiber glass make sure you take all the safety precautions recommended.
That means a good Respirator. (This one was like $20 from Harbor freight)

Not one of those $0.99 cheapies.

Always wear Safety glasses (I've been In the hospital with a steel fragment in my Eye...You never want that!!!) and when working with resins and other chemicals wear Gloves (Read the labels some solvents will eat rubber and latex gloves so wear the right ones!)

Now Back to building!

I also laid up some more fiberglass to use on the front two interface arm doors.

My group of Resin Detail Pieces here are primered Gray then covered with Rustoleum Come finish. After working with the Chrome the best way to use it is a top coat...more like a candy, because if you try to build up layers like with normal paint the shininess of the surface goes away, get bumpy and distorted. The Next group will get primered 2 coats of silver paint, a top coat of chrome, and a couple light coats of clear (to much and the shine goes away).

Here's one of the Leg Hubs up close.

I also Tested an off white paint for R2. The Real R2 is a Cream color (that's because it shows up on film as white, but doesn't blend into the Stark white interiors of the ships ) But since My R2 is not going to be filmed I just want him a little off white not Almond. So I picked up a can of Biscuit paint. This foot shell still need some details cut out so I did most of the body work (Bondo the corners and some of the dents, not to many Cause R2 needs to look used not right off the show room floor!) A couple of coats of primer some wet sanding and some color coats (2). This is what you get.

Let me remind you that this foot was made out of an old PC Case, That I hand bent and Spot welded together (I've still gotta make the Center foot So I'll take Pics as it Happens so I can Post them!).....Not bad for a HIllBilly with a hammer!

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